Archive for October, 2011

So… you’re reading the blog of the new board member for the Shack Art Center (http://www.schack.org/).  I’m incredibly honored and super excited to contribute to such a fabulous place.   I know I bring a unique perspective as an artist who also has started some businesses and worked with foundations and I know that I have a ton to learn from them.

For those of you who are unaware of the Shack, you should be!  It’s this incredible non-profit organization that brings artwork to the community in Everett and Snohomish county.  It has a hot-shop for glass, classrooms for instruction in a variety of art techniques, from painting to collage to kids classes.  All classes are taught by local artists and are open to everyone!  This is the same group of people who started the ‘Art in Great Spaces’ Program that brought so much additional art and life to the community in Everett.

I can’t wait to contribute and see you there!

Liz

So while painting the mural for my son I fell in love with the Pacific Northwest Octopus.  I loved the colors, the oddity and the sheer fun of painting an octopus… so I decided to paint one in watercolors instead of on a wall in acrylic. 

When painting in the puddling style one should plan out the basic shapes and think through the order of your painting.   With this painting I used masking fluid to preserve the shape of the octopus while keeping the background looking like it flows together and has an interesting composition.  The task then was to pick the order of the legs to paint…so fun!

I opted not to have each leg have suckers…. While it’s certainly possible to use masking fluid and go as detailed as you’d like with the painting I frankly just get bored with that level of detail…

There is a call for art out there for three 12 x 12 paintings and I’ve been planning on creating a series based on ‘Blackbird’ by the Beatles.

The idea came to me while I rocked my baby to sleep and heard ‘Blackbird’ playing behind me.  The lyrics are as follows:

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Here’s my vision:

Three images with text behind them.  Blackbirds will be featured in all of them.  The colors will be of the night and tiny splashes of color from the blackbird will be on display.